President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin "exchanged views" on the need to quickly implement the political agreement reached on Friday in Ukraine and for all sides to "refrain from further violence."

A White House statement said the two leaders spoke by phone and also discussed Syria, including the "importance of efforts to advance a political solution" to the civil war.

The conversation also covered concerns about the humanitarian crisis and the need for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to "adhere to its commitment to eliminate" chemical weapons, the White House said.

Earlier, a senior State Department official described the conversation as "constructive" with both governments pledging to remain engaged in the Ukrainian situation.

The Kremlin also said in a statement the two had "a substantive" discussion on Ukraine and other issues.

Guys,I am a Russian student. Media release our nations.. we're misinformed...we are told that the United States pays to Ukraine opposition .Russians do not know what Your mess media say to you..we should not believe the authorities they all selfish

Guys,I am a Russian student. Media release our nations.. we're misinformed...we are told that the United States pays to Ukraine opposition .Russians do not know what Your mess media say to you..we should not believe the authorities they all selfish

Guys,I am a Russian student. Media release our nations.. we're misinformed...we are told that the United States pays to Ukraine opposition .Russians do not know what Your mess media say to you..we should not believe the authorities they all selfish

I ask you how many more of our finest sons and daughters and then their children will somehow be coerced and convinced or ordered to become brave soldiers in order to pass one of the entrance rites to adulthood?

I ask you how many more of our world citizens will somehow be coerced and convinced or ordered to go to war to kill other equally perfect human beings?

I ask you how many more of our next generations of finest youths will somehow be coerced and convinced or ordered by leaders of nations, movements and religions to sacrifice their precious lives in war?

Russian people will not wage war against Americans.Even if our authorities make an order to fight we won't do that .we know that you also have families and your culture.and we respect that.There must not be war between us.my country had so many wars

After the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, U.S. citizens continued to serve in the military and bravely sacrificed their lives in 19 more wars. 19 more wars, all of which occurred in foreign countries with the exception of the War of 1812, and the Civil War and American Indian Wars when we turned our guns upon our own people.

And in the U.S., we sit with our eyes blankly staring and with our mouths agape every 4th of July and say, "ooh and aah" as we again celebrate our “bombs bursting in air.”

In the U.S., almost from birth we are taught to sing our National Anthem written, of course, about and during a war, the War of 1812.

In the U.S., almost since birth we sing most loudly, always in unison and cheer as fighter jets perform low fly-bys.

In the U.S., we sing about “the perilous fight” and “rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air.”

In the U.S., our National Anthem fittingly concludes, “Then conquer we must,”

In the U.S., our majority of citizens require or pressure even our youngest children to promise to obey our government which is after all, the same when we "Pledge Allegiance to the Flag."

And our United States citizens have always been told, “there are no diplomatic alternative left,” so our finest sons and daughters must again go to war as bravely as we did and our ancestors did.

And our U.S. leaders have always pledged that our finest sons and daughters bravely sacrificed their lives in foreign nations for something..."for our further freedom and democracy at home."

And our U.S. leaders and citizens still try to coerce more of our finest youths to defend more of their chosen causes and to attack more of their chosen foes.

And the U.S. has allocated $572 billion in "defense" spending for 2014.

And our majority of citizens only parrot to others that U.S. global military strength and expansionism and weapons productions and weapons sales will make us safer when instead the opposite is surely true.

And even our most patriotic and brave soldiers will not be able to protect us from our foreign blunders.

And even our most patriotic and brave soldiers will not be able to protect us from those who fear U.S. global military expansionism and from those who covet our sold weapons of mass destruction and from those who despise the arrogance of U.S. actions and its failed foreign policies.

Most people have been indoctrinated since birth by government, church, family and friends that “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” except in wars. It often appears that our morality still changes to suit the needs and desires of the moment.

The majority of our world citizens and even, amazingly and ironically, our highest religious leaders, continue to believe that sending our finest youths to fight and kill is a necessary evil in our world already gone awry.

Past and continuing world militarism provides the fear and self-justification that malleable citizens need in order for them to further endorse their leaders' expanding and modernizing military might. The expanding and escalating cycle thus feeds itself and prospers, like a self-perpetuating social and moral virus allowed to further drain our global health and wealth.

The majority of our world citizens, led by leaders of nations, movements and religions, continue to forget that this social and moral virus is reversible, is curable and is not yet terminal.

The Machiavellian leaders of both movements and nations are still, somehow permitted by a majority of their followers to issue ultimate threats of wars even when each new battle has taken an increasing toll. Many millions of our world citizens have already bravely sacrificed their health and lives for and because of the causes and conflicts created and continued by the leaders. Yet still, leaders are somehow permitted to coerce or order our finest youths to defend more of their chosen causes and to attack more of their chosen foes.

And the U.S. is the supreme military and economic power behind a worldwide military-industrial complex.

And it is no surprise that our struggling U.S. and world economies, temporarily supported by weapons productions and sales, will continue to only flounder on by if...only if our "Masters of War" can fuel even more wars…even more foreign wars fueled by our failed foreign policies and with our sold weapons of mass destruction.

And when “world peace’ is somehow discovered and is somehow forced upon even the U.S., the worldwide military-industrial complex, led by the U.S., will collapse.

And this collapse will create a global economic depression and social upheaval that will put the “Great Depression” to shame.

Why?

Because this will be the price all world citizens will have to initially pay as we finally try to make right our past moral wrongs.

February 23, 2014 at 7:26 pm |

Donald George MacDonald

May there be
peace on earth
and goodwill
toward all people
in this world.

February 23, 2014 at 8:11 pm |

Donald George MacDonald

Breaking Ranks

My focused sight flashes me back again.
I still see us more clearly here than when at war
as our spent ranks like the undead marched
past fire and ashes in a Mekong morning.

It is neither one if their business what happens in Ukraine! Neither the US nor Russia are the world's police! Ukraine made this protest for themselves not for outsiders and they can handle building themselves back up as well!

Well stated, Ben. Unfortunately, neither the U.S. nor it's crony allies will stay out of this as they now plan to go in and milk Ukraine for all it's worth, especially now that Yanukovitch apparently left Kiev.

You are 100% correct. And I can tell you how a conversation between these two went. Putin told Obama. 🙂 While we question the actions of another government..I have always wondered if our government would do the same as that government if there were large protest against our leadership. While I would hope not, something tells me it would be the same.

To Funny. Obama is to dumb to realize Putin or anyone else could care less about what Obama thinks. Obama is a joke to the rest of the world and they know his word is worthless. And his actions are those of an incompetent fool

@ Baal:
Those in recovery generally have higher morals than those who aren't. Bush served in the service. If Bush lied about the war he had plenty of company, among them Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and John Kerry. I think most of us that read your post can easily see who the hypocrite here is.

Really! Obama's foreign policy has been very effective. No one one has respect for him – constantly drawing lines in the sand and not backing them up. He's a rollover – worse than Carter- if that's possible. The man has zero leadership skills and no experience. He can't even control the IRS or NSA.

February 24, 2014 at 8:02 am |

bobo

LOL... The world thinks the USA is weak BECAUSE of Obama!

February 24, 2014 at 10:07 am |

Kesman

Most of you criticising Obama are not qualified to do so, if you doubt me, check your conscience and you will convince your self. No man is perfect and Obama is not an exception. you Americans only see the goodness of a President or leader after one or group of you have killed him, e.g Abraham Lincoln, J.F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King jr . He (obama) has his flaws but dude has also done well in some area, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and may be Syria too. Do you know if really has no intention of bombing Syria but made the threat to gain an upper hand? Try to look at issues from both sides before making irrelivant statements in public domain

Fact is, President Obama has cleaned up the terrible mess ex Pres. Bush and the Republicans created – unemployment had dropped from 11% to 6.7%, deficit from 1.2 T to 0.6T, has gotten us out of 2 wars and kept us out of 2 more, and made health care affordable for 10M Americans.

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Who is Obama to tell others like Vladimir Putin what to do about Ukraine? We have no business there and we need to quit trying to make that country join either the EU and NATO. It appears that those who are demonstrating against the Yanukovitch regime have never heard the old Irish adage, "If you shake hands with the Devil, you may not get it back".

No, bcrunner. George patton is absolutely right! It's the protesters who want to shake hands with the Devil(the Devil being the EU and NATO). One can even say the the NATO forces are the Devil's children.

February 22, 2014 at 4:00 pm |

Dennis

CNN to Fubar Obama: You are not funny and you know it.Please try again,since we know that you are no more intelligent than is Ted Nugent.

CNN:This is hitman..I wish I were mature enough to offer an adult comment,but since I am not,I will offer childish,juvenile criticism of the President instead.One day I may grow up,hopefully within my lifetime.Sincerely,hitman.

Just an FYI, Obama has been called the Messiah by many people. While yes, it was a cheesy joke and making your own President look bad is never good, there is some truth to it.

You can rest easy knowing Obama hasn't been made fun quite as bad as Bush. I'm sure you defended him when he was President as well.

February 22, 2014 at 9:26 am |

Peter

Just a datapoint among all of these juvenile posts about Obama and Putin:

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy….I was able to get a sense of his soul." —George W. Bush, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, June 16, 2001

February 22, 2014 at 10:14 am |

StanCalif

Responding to:
Peter

Just a datapoint among all of these juvenile posts about Obama and Putin:

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy….I was able to get a sense of his soul." —George W. Bush, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, June 16, 2001

Bush was, is and will always be an idiot!!! His "mission accomplished" only started a much bigger mess. Something we should never have been involved in! 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq. This was his good buddy, Dick Cheney, lusting for oil – he never got even one drop of it! That failed, Dick held a secret meeting with the oil companies and gave them the green light to destroy our Gulf of Mexico. All they had to do was promise not to harm any Walruses! Surprise, the Gulf has NO walruses!
Trusting Putin? Another major mistake! Putin is today's most successful dictator. Whatever Putin wants, Putin gets.

February 22, 2014 at 3:15 pm |

Al

Is this not nice, a hard liner showing a puppy (Obama) how to transform a country from full freedom to full control and what happens when they fight the change. I'm sure Putin said that it would be over within three days after the media from the Olympics and the people leave Russia. Then we can talk about helping the transformation that Obama has started reach completion and control the people in America.

No, no! The real story?: Putin talks (puts) down to 0-bama. And, 0-Bama listens intently. Too bad HE DOES NOT listen (intently or otherwise) to the Américan populace. Well, maybe to Bobble Head Pelosi and Senile Reed!

Hey Dennis, you really, really sure about that?! Dennis, don't get your dander up; I am just "joshing" with you.

By the way, we DO agree to disagree, YOU DO REALIZE THAT, right.

Señor Dennis, have a nice/mellow day!!!

February 22, 2014 at 10:40 am |

Don

I disagree, Reid and Pelosi are so liberal, I'd classify them as American socialists. Lets see – big government, socialized medicine, unfettered immigration policy, uncontrolled debt, serious under employment and unemployment. The list goes on and on. No control of the IRS and NSA and a disastrous foreign policy. These accomplishments are astounding.

One of the biggest drawbacks to the false Iraq WMD premise is that no one will actually believe or support military intervention when it is needed. Most of the world powers have a history passivity when it comes to humanitarian crises, and they have ALWAYS looked to USA for leadership (and blame) in such situations. Now we can watch a chemical extermination live on TV and say "not my problem."

I hope Jesus forgot to set his alarm, because frankly we don't deserve to be saved.

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CNN's Security Clearance examines national and global security, terrorism and intelligence, as well as the economic, military, political and diplomatic effects of it around the globe, with contributions from CNN's national security team in Washington and CNN journalists around the world.